Media / Investor Relations
United Global Water Holdings Limited
Address: 2nd Floor, Regis House,
45 King William Street, EC4R 9AN,
London, United Kingdom
[email protected]
Precipitation is water that is released from clouds. Precipitation mostly falls in the form of rain but it can also be in the form of rain, sleet, hail, snow or freezing rain. Precipitation is crucial in the water cycle and it delivers atmospheric water to Earth.
So how do these raindrops form? Clouds that you see in the sky contain water vapour along with cloud droplets (small drops of condensed water). These droplets are very small and will not fall as rain, but they will form a cloud. If you take a close look at a cloud you will realize that some part of it is forming and disappearing at the same time. The disappearing part is evaporating while the forming part is condensing. This means that evaporation and condensing happen non-stop in the sky. The updraft, which supports the clouds in the air, does not permit most of the condensed water in clouds to fall as rain
Tiny droplets must condense on even tinier dust particles, salt, or smoke particles for precipitation to happen. Water droplets can grow due to additional condensation of water vapour when particles collide. When enough collisions occur to produce a droplet, which will fall at a velocity that exceeds the cloud updraft speed, then it will fall out of a cloud as precipitation. As you can imagine, millions of cloud droplets are needed to create a single drop of rain, so it is not a very simple task.
Precipitation can cause huge amounts of rainfall, especially during storms. On inch of rain falling a single acre result in 27,154 gallons of water on the landscape. There is also an interactive rainfall calculator you can use to find out the amount of water falling during a storm. However, the rates of precipitation vary geographically. It is common for thunderstorms to cause a lot of rain in one area while leaving another area within the city, dry. A fun fact is that the world record for average-annual rainfall belongs to Mt. Waialeale, Hawaii, where the average is around 1.14 meters per year.
In the end, precipitation is water that falls to Earth in the form of rain, sleep, snow etc. It is very important because it helps maintain the atmospheric balance. Without precipitation, the oceans would be practically empty. Along with providing a freshwater supply for humans, precipitation helps farmers grow crops as well, which we eat. There are also times when precipitation can be damaging. Hail can damage certain crops, heavy rain can cause traffic accidents etc.
Contacts
For more information, please contact
Media / Investor Relations
United Global Water Holdings Limited
Address: 2nd Floor, Regis House,
45 King William Street, EC4R 9AN,
London, United Kingdom
[email protected]
